AT&T; to Cut Long Distance Rates by 8.1%

AT&T; today proposed long-distance rate cuts averaging 8.1% as of Jan. 1.

The rate cuts, the second round this year, will save customers $1.2 billion a year if the rates are approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

Long-distance customers of American Telephone & Telegraph would save an estimated 11.6% on daytime calls, 6.2% on evening calls and 2.7% less on calls after 11 p.m.

The new rates were spurred in part by a federal government order to cut the profit margin for the company’s interstate business from 12.75% to 12.2%, effective the first of the year.

FCC Chairman Mark S. Fowler, who was in Phoenix attending a convention of state regulators, said he was pleased with the news.

A 9.5% rate cut, announced last April, went into effect on June 1 and was calculated to save AT&T; customers $2 billion, the largest long-distance rate drop in history.

AT&T;’s prime competitors, MCI and US Sprint, reduced their rates later in the summer. The spread between AT&T; rates and those of its competitors has been shrinking.

Spokesmen for both MCI and US Sprint said they had not seen the newest rate schedule. They have said their companies would remain competitive.